Travel games for all the family to enjoy
Going on holiday is always exciting. But the initial thrill of setting off on your staycation can soon give way to a chorus of “are we there yet?” Whether you’re travelling by road or rail, a classic travel game can help keep the whole family entertained, making sure you arrive at your destination relaxed and ready to make the most of your break.
Here are some fun games you can play in the car or on the train to help you pass the time.
An absolute classic.
I, Spy is a fantastic way to pass the time on long journeys. However you’re travelling there’ll be plenty of things for you to use in your game. There are even a few different variations you can play depending on the age of the people playing. Letters is, of course, the traditional route, but you can also challenge younger kids to ‘spy’ items of a certain colour.
Travelling through empty countryside? The easiest way to combat this is to exclusively spy things inside the vehicle. It can provide a good challenge the further into the game you get.
You can also use I Spy to build anticipation for your destination – can you spot any signs for where you’re heading or any landmarks on the route?
How’s your celebrity knowledge?
Who am I? is a guessing game you’ll need all your pop culture knowledge for. You can only ask yes or no questions to figure out which celebrity someone is thinking of. Anyone can play this, although it’s best to make sure the celebrities are all people everyone playing will have heard of.
To make things more interesting, you can even include fictional characters.
Top tip: Make sure you know a lot about the person you’re thinking of. It’s no fun for anyone if you can’t answer the questions!
Is your spelling up to par?
The number plate game, whichever way you play it, is great for keeping everyone occupied for a good amount of time.
A-Z
The first, and easiest way to play it, is to make it a competition to see who can find the entire alphabet (in order!) on the number plates of other cars.
Remember that there are some characters that don’t appear on UK number plates. The letters ‘I’ and ‘Q’, do not appear because they look too much like other characters. However, if you want to keep your kids occupied for a while, it may be best to not tell them this bit of information.
Spelling
Challenge your passengers to try and spell the longest word you can with the number plates you can see around you, like a game of Scrabble. Make it extra tricky by aiming for words in a certain category as well, like animals or place names.
This one requires a bit of pre-holiday prep! Create some bingo cards featuring items you might see on your trip or things which might happen on the journey (ie taking a wrong turn, seeing a police car etc). Players have to tick of their items as they see them/they occur, shouting bingo when they’ve got a full house.
Make sure you’ve got some sweets as a prize.
This game is more suited to kids on the younger side.
Keep track of any animals they see by the road while you’re driving or travelling by train, and by the time you reach your destination they’ll have their very own collection of farm animals.
THE PARTY GAME
What will you bring to the party? A game of logic and memory, this is great to play when you’re on long stretches of empty road.
The rules:
- The first player thinks of a category of things to bring to the party. This could be anything, for example, things that start with A, or items that begin with the same letter as each player’s name. Do not tell the other players what the category is!
- The first player then says “I’m bringing an autograph to the party” (or any item that follows the rule you’ve decided on.
- The other players then have to try and figure out what the category is. The next player may assume that it’s letters of the alphabet and say, “I’m bringing a beachball to the party”. They are not invited to the party.
- The third player may say “I’m bringing an artichoke to the party”. They are invited to the party.
- The round continues until there is only one person left who hasn’t figured out the category.
You can make the rounds as easy or as difficult as you like. Why not switch it up and have the category be spelling the name of one of your players, or the name of a famous person? It requires a lot more concentration to keep track of who’s coming to the party or not.
AFTER YOU'VE ARRIVED...
The best thing about all these games is that you can play them in other places too. They’re perfect for playing at the breakfast or dinner table while you’re waiting for food. While most can be played as is, you can repurpose the number plate game to use signs in cafes and restaurant, menus, and even road signs if you’re sat outside.
If you’re stuck for categories when playing the party game, try some of our favourites:
- Food and drink that can be red (or any other colour)
- Things you would take on a holiday abroad
- Oscar winners – this one’s for the adults!
- YouTubers – for the kids
- Spell out your destination using objects
